Spring
by Sumino
Summary: A girl's struggles with a sickness, losing her close friends, and trying to fit-in. Not as bad as it sounds.


**Hi everyone, Sumino here, and this is my first fanfic ever! I hope it's not _too_ bad! . Feel free to give me advice, I'm only a beginner, after all!!**

**I hope you like it!**

**-Prologue-**

The sound of my footsteps echoed through the school's hallway. Of course, my two best friends, Shiki and Otome, were beside me, smiling and talking about the latest gossip, and other typical things that fourteen-year-old girls talked about.

I wasn't paying much attention to 'our' conversation, my mind was filled with other thoughts, most of which were more important than 'who was going out with who.' First of all, I was concerned about the up-coming school play. I already had a part in it, the Cheshire Cat, but I wasn't feeling very good lately. To most people, being 'a little sick' wouldn't matter, after all, everyone got sick now and then, right?

Wrong. To me, being sick was a part of my everyday life. I have this kind of sickness, that weakens my body. It's slowly killing me on the inside, but nobody tells me that. They all say, "It's alright, you'll get better." It's not alright. I feel weaker every day that passes by. Only sometimes, when I'm lucky, I start to feel slightly better. Sometimes I feel great, and really start to think that I'm recovering, only to start feeling sicker the next day. Did I mention that I frequently have to be visiting the hospital?

Enough talk about that, where were we? Oh yes, the up-coming school play. I was fairly excited about it. I was participating in one of my favorite stories of all time, Alice in Wonderland. Ever since I was a little kid, I would read the book over and over again. When I heard that the play was on my favorite story, I immediately signed-up to participate.Of course, another person was also assigned the role of Chesire Cat, just in case I 'started feeling a little sick.'

If the teachers felt un-certain about my health, then they shouldn't have let me sign-up for the damned play in the first place. But oh well, I was too excited and I got carried away. It's my own fault, I guess I won't be able to be the Chesire Cat after all... It didn't matter to me as much anymore, I was used to not being able to participate in my school's events. Watching the play was just as good as being in the play...

My mind was also filled with another thought; the end of the school-year was nearing. Since I was sick often, I had to miss class a lot. There was usually no problem with this, since Otome would usually come by my house and re-teach me the lesson. Recently though, my homeroom teacher had come to my house and had had a meeting with my parents. Being the curious girl that I was, I had sneaked out of my room and hid behind the couch, listening to their conversation.

Don't get me wrong, my parents taught me manners and all that, but this involved me, so it was only natural that I had eavesdropped on them. I gave a quiet sigh of impatience when they kept on talking about how 'I was working really hard on my studies, even though I didn't go to class often.' Finally, my teacher got to the whole point of his visit.

"And, as you can see, Yume is a very hardworking girl..." I smirked at this part. "Che" was all I quietly uttered. "...But, her test scores are relatively low...And I'm afraid that she'll have to repeat 8th grade..." the teacher, Mr. Takahashi, had said in a quiet, almost whisper-like tone of voice. My eyes didn't widen, like in most stories where 'The girl's eyes widened as the person said that.' I had just stared at the floor silently.

And that was the other reason for why I had been so quiet during Otome and Shiki's yapping. They didn't know I was repeating 8th grade yet. Hell no, like I would tell them. It was better if they found out for themselves, when they realized that I wasn't with them in high-school. We finally arrived to the classroom, and I slid into my seat at the back corner. Otome sat in front of me, while Shiki sat at the desk next to me.

I tapped Otome on the shoulder, and when she turned around, I just gave a small smile at her. I did the same thing with Shiki, smiling slightly. They were confused as to why I was acting like this, but this didn't bother me, I turned towards the window to my left, and gazed outside, wondering why sometimes life seemed so unfair.


End file.
